No matter what we think we know about blogs, there's always something new to learn. Let's start with some interesting points of observation and reality in order to frame blogs in a proper setting.

Forrester Research published a report shockingly entitled "Time to Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas."^[13] To the surprise of many, it placed corporate blogs at the bottom of the credibility list. According to the study, only 16 percent of online consumers who read corporate blogs admitted to trusting them. As such, blogs ranked lower in trustworthiness than every other form of content in Forrester's list of corporate marketing and media tools, even below broadcast and print media, direct mail, and e-mail.

However, don't let this deter you from starting or further developing your blog. The primary reason for the unpopularity of a corporate blog is directly attributable to the wariness that consumers have acquired through years of being barraged by propaganda, publicity, and hype. Many companies unfortunately have used the blog as yet another vehicle to push promotion over value. It's not a place to publish press releases, nor is it intended to serve as a stepchild of service or marketing.

Blogs are completely ineffective and only contribute to consumers' leeriness when used as a corporate platform for marketing, schilling, pitching, or broadcasting promotional messages.

The lack of seriousness and understanding toward blogs has unfortunately caused reverberating effects that are difficult to overcome. With that said, you are not burdened with the responsibility of transforming an entire industry, nor the perceptions associated with it. Your responsibility is to increase the interaction and collaboration between you and your peers, customers, and prospects. Your priority is increasing your value to the communities that impact your bottom line, and blogs are an important host and library for your knowledge base. The best corporate blogs are genuine and designed to help people, by becoming an industry resource through thought leadership, unquestionable passion, and solutions for the real-world pains of the marketplace.

The blog is your hub for demonstrating expertise, sharing vision, listening to and responding to customers, communicating progress, curating relevant market and trend information, and hosting dialogues to further the company's values and principles. It requires continuity, cadence, and a voice that readers can connect with.

Of all the blogs in the world, some of the most popular are, in fact, company blogs. Google, 37Signals, FreshBooks, and Dell are among the most read and linked-to blogs in the blogosphere, and for good reason. They embody all of the points above. They live and breathe the human persona of the brand that they've created and have emerged as a frequented and must-stop destination for consumers seeking information, direction, discourse, and recognition.

It's important to point out that even to this day, executives and marketers question the efficiency and potential of blogs—even in the face of tangible evidence that proves and outlines its upside potential. Many believe that their time is better spent elsewhere and that finding contributors for regular, consistent, and insightful posts can become an unceasing chore.

One solution resides in the outsourcing of post-generation tasks to outside experts who will gladly contribute unbiased, valuable, and interesting content for a price. Depending on the individual, posts can range from $25 to hundreds of dollars per post.

Initially, marketers shied away from ghostwritten posts, where an uncredited, paid writer posts content under someone else's byline. Instead, communication and marketing professionals asked, or begged, for the participation of the influential voices of important individuals within the business, requesting them to blog as often as possible. While this is important and necessary in the art of blogging, it is not realistic to expect these busy and oft-preoccupied business leaders to assume the role of blogger. However, it is rational, and effective, to encourage infrequent, yet regularly scheduled, posts from them. There's a reason why these people are leading the company, and their vision and experiences must receive attention in the most prominent platform for sharing that company voice and persona— the blog.

It's not only contract bloggers who represent a solution for filling the editorial calendar in between executive posts—other employees and outside enthusiasts and customers are also willing to contribute. They just need direction, deadlines, and a framework. Many are more than capable of interviewing key executives, customers, partners, and influencers to feature their visions, experiences, and wisdom, without requiring them to directly write for the blog.

Everything must start with a plan, however.

Blogging for the sake of blogging, even with the best of intentions, is meaningless if the internal team cannot communicate an organized infrastructure. Essentially, someone must serve as an editor in chief for the blog or blog network. Someone must preside over the channel in order to marshal the brand and ensure integrity. In the models where multiple networks exist—for example, across product or business divisions—multiple editors must officiate the content for their dedicated channel, ultimately reporting to an editor in chief. For those organizations where tens, hundreds, or thousands of corporate-run or endorsed blogs exist, guidelines, best practices, standards, rewards, and consequences are not optional. They must exist and receive attention and governance. Otherwise, social chaos ensues, resulting in brand dilution and market confusion.

The challenges also lie outside the process of creating and publishing content. This is true for any form of social networking.

Nothing happens simply because you build a blog and publish a post. The delusions of grandeur or the fundamentally misunderstandings of how people discover, respond to, and share information through blog sites leads to disappointment, and can cause the early termination of truly promising participation strategies.

Just because we host a grand opening doesn't necessarily assure or imply that we will host any guests.

There is an element of content promotion and marketing that is usually understated and neglected—mostly due to the lack of awareness or unfamiliarity with the processes. However, it crosses over into ignorance when programs are disparaged or killed prematurely.

The truth is that everything related to content production, from blogs to podcasts to tweets, requires the active promotion of that content outside of your domain. Again, using the bridging metaphor, you must hand-deliver related information to those seeking it through unobtrusive, empathetic, and cooperative means.

With every link outward, every tweet back, every e-mail, and every comment in other forums, we point people back to our work, not simply because we published something, but in view of the fact that we mindfully contributed value and insight and were prepared to respond.

Yes, comments on other blogs are a form of both participation and "unmarketing." Make sure to pay attention to relevant posts around the blogosphere and contribute relevant comments both on your blog and elsewhere. Some of the best conversations take place in the comments section, as people react to what you wrote, as well as the feedback from their peers.

The right comments boost visibility and contribute to a resume of experience and prowess.

Services such as BackType offer a window into comments across the entire blogosphere. It's a search engine for keywords and names, specifically in the comments sections of blogs. In contrast, blog search engines scour only the posts, but do not dive into the strings of conversations that transpire in the comments sections. BackType and new comment-and reputation-tracking systems that are integrated into blog platforms can say more about you than you imagine. These services align the comments that are strewn across the hundreds of thousands of (legitimate) blogs.

As you blog, lead, or contribute to the blogging initiatives, make sure to link to all channels of influence each and every time they share something of significance—even if it's an older entry. This will send trackbacks to any outside blog post that may have inspired your post(s) and thus builds tunnels between the blogs, allowing new readers to discover your content.

Extend your knowledge and acumen outside of your domain and into the online provinces that host and promote discussions that orbit your entity. Quite simply said, go where your customers are and not where they aren't. Give them something to read. Give them something to share. Give them reasons to respond.

Create a blogroll and link out to influential voices on the Web, whether they're reporters, bloggers, customers, analysts, or just excellent resources for inspiration and intelligence.

Southwest Airline's blog (www.blogsouthwest.com), playfully named "Nuts about Southwest," keeps in line with the company's "Fun-LUVing" attitude. The site informs, with posts dedicated to the latest service changes or updates on its bid for Frontier Airlines. It entertains, such as by covering the wedding of two Southwest frequent flyers who prominently displayed Southwest peanuts packages at each table. And most importantly, the site aims to build a personal relationship between Southwest employees and customers. The blog extends beyond standard text posts to include multimedia. The page incorporates images; links to the Southwest Flickr group, an employee video blog; and also encourages user participation through ratings, polls, comments, and photo/video sharing.

In another example, Dell launched its blog, Direct2Dell, in July 2006, to engage customers, open up the lines of communication, and repair its reputation after dealing with a tarnished image and a firestorm of criticisms across the blogosphere. And the strategy is working. In Jeff Jarvis's BusinessWeek article in 2007,^[14] it was reported that negative blog posts about Dell dropped from 49 percent to 22 percent.

Dell has participated openly and honestly—even posting photos of one of its exploded laptops on the blog. And the company launched IdeaStorm.com to solicit customer's suggestions, comments, and complaints. There's even been evidence that community feedback has driven product development at Dell (see http://is.gd/1YCUe).

Podcasts are a powerful and portable way to reach people who prefer audio as a means of education, intellectual stimulation, or entertainment.

Podcasts are DIY-easy and can provide a world of value to customers, peers, and influencers. Not only are podcasts portable, they're embeddable and shareable in websites and blog posts, are promotable just about anywhere to anyone looking for insight, and are distributed by Apple iTunes, which provides access to millions of potential users worldwide. The tools for recording, editing, and publishing podcasts are increasingly affordable and readily available from computer-based audio tools to handheld recording gadgets—making it practically a no-brainer to at least experiment with this medium.

And there's reason to pay attention and speak up. In 2009, Edison Research published a joint study with Arbitron that documented a steady and unrelenting growth for the podcast audience. From 2008 to 2009, consumers grew from 18 percent of all Americans to 22 percent. Americans "aware" of audio podcasts also rose from 37 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2009.

The following list comes from Edison's study, "The Infinite Dial":^[15]

Podcast content can focus on a variety of programming and can include shows dedicated to company milestones, industry trends and challenges, executive interviews, customer success stories, how-to instructions, and anything else in between.

Financial services provider Fidelity Investments offers its clients and the general public free podcasts at Fidelity Podcasts. Current and interested investors can listen to interviews with Fidelity mutual-fund portfolio managers as they share investment strategies, expectations, and market analysis. No doubt this value-adding information keeps Fidelity in the spotlight for investors and helps establish their authority (see http://is.gd/1YBUF).

Wikis, a name that comes from the Hawaiian phrase "wiki wiki," meaning "really fast," are among the most efficient tools for tapping the wisdom of the crowds wherever ideas, information, directions and instructions, product or experiential feedback, brainstorming, process/event management, and myriad other applications are requested. In fact, one of the most successful and influential websites in existence is a wiki. You probably know it better as Wikipedia.

Wikis are designed to allow site visitors to add, edit, update, and amend information through any Web browser. They invite and promote collaboration among employees, as well as consumers and in-fluencers.

Wikis are important to facilitate collaboration in a friendlier, more socially focused content creation and management system. It's not just about teams and document management or collaboration around a particular topic. Wikis can provide a vibrant forum for inviting content and suggestions from customers and partners to further ideas and dialog in an ongoing, trackable, scalable, and measurable fashion.

Wiki software can run on any Web server, to host custom wiki pages as a stand-alone destination or as an extension to your website. Third-party wiki platforms are also widely available if you choose to host a wiki outside of your domain. URLs can still be customized and simply point to a different location.

Wikipedia entries regarding your company and market are highly influential to visitors who visit those pages. The Google page-rank function is incredibly strong in Wikipedia, and in most cases the leading result for any search in Google will direct you to the corresponding page in Wikipedia.

I've worked with several influential and famous people who did not appreciate the user-generated content associated with their Wikipedia entries and tried, numerously and unsuccessfully, to edit them directly or through the help of employees and outside experts. Their edits always reverted back to the previous version. Wikipedia operates on an earned trust and credibility system where accredited editors outrank everyday users. Find an expert to help you before you inadvertently lock up the page, which occurs when there are too many attempts to change it.

Oracle launched its official public Oracle Wiki back in 2007. Designed for both employees and nonemployees (the main page bears the message "Oracle employees, this is not an internal site!"), the wiki is a place where members of the Oracle community can collaborate and share content on Oracle-related subjects—including installation guides, technical tips, and project documentation.

The Oracle Wiki presents an interesting example for those companies grappling with the loss of control in the very public and transparent world of social media. While the Wiki FAQs state that the site belongs to the community, Oracle (like Microsoft and others) has chosen to play the role of active moderator. The company has been criticized for removing negative statements about its products (which they claimed violated the terms of use). Of course, unlike the true community-driven Wikipedia, corporate wiki owners always have a choice of when and how to moderate content on their site. In Oracle's case, they may have wanted to prevent damaging material from reaching their competitors—yet in the process of being careful and calculated, they run the risk of public backlash against perceived censorship and loss of goodwill in the community (see http://wiki.oracle.com).

Virtual worlds encompass a 3D computer environment in which users are represented on screen as themselves or as made-up characters and interact in real time with other users. Multiuser online games (MMOGs) and virtual worlds such as Second Life are examples.^[16]

In 2007 to 2008, many brands and companies flocked to Second Life to build a virtual presence, a trend that spiked and then experienced a backlash and ultimately lost a large percentage of users. By mid-2009, virtual worlds were realizing a comeback of sorts. In July 2009, virtual worlds consultancy firm KZero Worldswide (www.kzero.co.uk) reported that membership of virtual worlds grew by 39 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million. The virtual worlds of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, and Second Life are respectively posting profits powered by those who were intent on getting a "second" life.

According to the study, it is the youth demographic that drove the bulk of this 39 percent growth. KZero reported that Poptropica.com, which targets 5- to 10-year-olds, boasts over 76 million registered users. As the ages increase, so do the numbers of users. For example, in the range of 10- to 15-year-olds, Habbo's virtual world population rivaled some real-world countries with 135 million users. Other networks also accommodate massive citizenry. Fifty-four million inhabit Neopets, 34 million occupy Star Dolls, and 28 million reside in Club Penguin.

Older users seem to take more interest in real-life social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Among 15- to 25-year-olds usage appears to diminish—apart from Poptropica, which maintains and active community of 35 million. However, as existing, younger demographics of virtual worlds mature, their conditioning and expectations for sophisticated and immersive interaction won't dwindle. Social networks that cater to older demographics may soon need to integrate virtual features and experiences in order to attract new users over time.

Many companies are extending their presence into these active new realms. For example, World of Warcraft, a popular MMOG, is rife with branded content. In many cases, companies pay for prominent placement within the networks as they can psychologically connect with users at a peer level. There's a general sentiment that the sponsoring brand is part of the community because it supports the community. Certain brands also promote their presence using traditional media tools to connect themselves to the legions of users through outside means.

KZero breaks out the world of virtual words using a visual that resembles a radar screen. In its cartography of the virtual landscape, the company organizes the disparate varieties of communities into 12 categories:

Many brands are creating custom and dedicated virtual worlds that create unique experiences that symbolize the brand's essence, style, and personality. This requires the involvement of an interactive design team that's well-versed in creating alternative realities and online escapes that engage users while also discretely, yet persuasively, reinforcing brand attributes and encouraging user recruitment of friends and contacts to connect with them in these brave new worlds.

In some cases, participation in virtual worlds was as simple as engaging individuals or groups of people directly through your alter ego. In other more common usage scenarios, brands set up virtual presences, branches, outlets, venues, and so forth to host discussions, answer questions, and also facilitate transactions. Existing virtual worlds require observation and either direct or indirect participation as an active user prior to undertaking any form of marketing. There's just no way around spending the time to participate if you hope to have any shot at long-term viability and return. These worlds nurture unique cultures that require hands-on experience and skill at adapting to a new landscape and successfully befriending and communicating with residents—levels of experience that is only possible through residence and participation.

IBM has embraced the virtual world of Second Life to host corporate meetings and connect with customers. They opened a Briefing Center in Second Life where customers and potential customers can explore, find answers to specific questions, and chat with the avatars of real-life IBM experts and employees. For example, interested IT professionals and other techies can take a "hands-on" tour of the IBM Virtual Green Data Center, see the IBM storage systems in action, and learn all about the key energy-efficient technologies (Figure 4.1). There are regularly scheduled data-center tours, presentations, and conference sessions.

Figure 4.1. IBM's Virtual Green Data Center in Second Life

And this Second Life data center is staffed 24 hours a day, five days a week.

The venerable technology company is also using the virtual world to take the place of expensive and time-consuming corporate meetings for its global workforce. A case study published by Linden Lab (the makers of Second Life) documents how IBM held a Virtual World Conference and Annual Meeting on Second Life. The meeting brought together more than 200 participants and included everything you'd expect—keynote speeches, breakout sessions, and various areas for community gathering. Participants were given preconference training on the basics of Second Life to help ease the adoption curve. The study reported that the Annual Meeting was executed at one-fifth the cost of a real-world event (in addition to the productivity gains, because attendees could participate from their desks, rather than catch a flight) (see http://is.gd/1YsRw).

As we close the chapter on 101 and advance to 201, we realize that our induction into new media was absent of any form of hazing, providing only the data and insight that will help us excel.